Iveyrock

It’s been a good day.

While I was nursing Micah, I came across this post at 5 Orange Potatoes. Ian was watching over my shoulder, and asked if we could make colored ice, too. I was reluctant, since the baby was sick and very fussy, and food coloring would be a bit much even on a good day. But Ian really wanted to try it, so we gave it a go.

I didn’t realize before we started this project that my kids have no concept of ice. We have an automatic ice maker, so they have never seen me make ice cubes. And they have never seen water freeze outside. Ian had no idea how we were going to get the ice, let alone how we were going to make it different colors.

So I set them up to make ice…

and color it…

and we waited for it to freeze. This part was hard on Ian, he checked his ice every 15 minutes or so.

When it was finally frozen, I put some cubes in oil so they could watch it melt, like they did on the blog. But the kids were much more interested in coloring with the ice. Ice and oil on a table become very slippery, very quickly. We had ice on the floor, ice on the chairs, ice shooting all over the place. The kids thought that was hilarious, of course. I was a little worried about the food coloring, but it didn’t stain anything at all. The kids went right into the bath, with the extra ice cubes, when things got too out of hand.

Overall it went well, and the kids had fun. It could have gone more smoothly if I’d been in a better mood myself, and if I didn’t have a very unhappy baby through the whole process.

I do plan to do lots more with ice over the next bit, since the kids enjoyed it so much and were so unaware of how ice is made. That, and the fact that it’s still in the 100’s here…

The baby is sick, and we were all feeling somewhat restless today. I was feeling discouraged and dreary. So while I was trying to help Micah, I set the kids up with a quick project.

I had some card stock that came pre-folded, and I just grabbed a couple of pieces and stapled them into a book. (We haven’t used the stapler before, Ian was pretty impressed by it…)

The kids chose watercolers to make their books with; if I’d been thinking at all I would have discouraged them from paints. They love painting, but of course you have to wait until the pages are dry, or they smear.

Ian was playing around with writing letters, and asking me what they said. He was giggling at all of the silly sounds he was writing (lots of I’s and O’s), when he accidentally wrote the word “HI”. He stared at me, then stared at his paper for a bit, and I could see the whole thing clicking in his brain. He said, ” Mommy, somebody who was looking at this paper would think ‘the person who wrote this wanted to say HI’”. I said, “Yes, that’s exactly right.”

He started at it for a bit longer, and said, “But they wouldn’t know who was saying Hi. How do you spell Ian?”

He spent the rest of the afternoon writing words in his books (mostly HI). He did take a brief break to paint a dinosaur, inspired by Chava’s dinosaur painting. He wrote “Hi Meemaw, Ian” on his picture, to send to his Meemaw. The whole process was so much fun to watch. He was really excited, and pretty pleased with himself. Chava had a good time painting her books, as well. She spent some detailed time painting each page.

The only problem is their medium – you can’t see the work that went into making these, because everything sort of ran together and squished. All in all, it was a great end to what started out as a rough day.

As I mentioned before, our projects are all very open ended. I am sure some kids are very into a finished product, and would enjoy a planned craft with a specific end goal. My kids, however, are very much interested in the process of creating. So I don’t spend a lot of time coming up with specific craft ideas, or preparing craft supplies. My role is more to facilitate their process.

So what is it that I actually do?

Materials:
My job isn’t to prepare pre-made craft ideas, but I do spend some time collecting and organizing materials that either I want to introduce them to, or that I think might inspire them. I pay attention to the things they are requesting regularly, and make sure we keep them stocked in the house.

Priorities:
As I said in a previous post, allowing the kids to do ‘projects’ is a priority for me. I want them to be able to experiment with different ways of creating, traditional and non-traditional. I make a point to keep supplies on hand, and to get them down when the kids ask. I intentionally keep supplies easy to grab and easy to clean. I care more about letting the kids create than having spotless kitchen, so I don’t get stressed when they are cutting feathers into bits on my table.

Direction:
I don’t direct their projects. When Ian asks if he can make something (“mommy, can I make a turkey vulture?”) I ask what he supplies he needs. I’ll usually listen to what he’s telling me he wants to do, and work with him to figure out what he can use. Chava doesn’t usually have an actual goal in mind, so I still just hand her general supplies (she typically asks for “a glueing project”, or “a drawing project”). As they work, I sometimes ask them to tell me about their project, but I try not to make suggestions. I do occasionally put out some materials that I think they might like, but I don’t usually show them a certain way to use them.

Investment:
If I want the kids to be invested in their work, I need to show them that I care about it. We display art that they are particularly proud of. I take pictures. I ask them to tell me about what they are making. I talk about the colors or the techniques they’re using. When I can, I sit with them while they are working; either doing what they are doing, or working on my own project. They always seem to spend more time and be more intentional about their work when I am sitting there with them. I also work on my own projects in my own free time. They see that creating is fun and important to me, which in turn inspires them.

My Sanity:
Part of my job in allowing these projects is to know my own limitations, as well as what our household needs to run smoothly. I would love to be able to allow them to start great huge projects, whenever they please. However, since we have to eat on the table that they use, and go to sleep on occasion, there have to be limits to what we do. In knowing what I am ok with doing, I can then be very flexible within that framework. I don’t let them get a huge amount of supplies out right before bed, although they are welcome to draw then. I don’t let them take crayons and markers out of the kitchen, because it’s much too easy to wind up with crayon in the carpet and a cranky mommy. (I have some lovely crayon murals on my wall, from before this rule was instated.) As they get older, I am sure my boundaries will change. Right now, having rules that they know and follow means that they are able to do much more.

I do sometimes need to say no to doing something just because I am overwhelmed and anxious. There are times when getting out fingerpaints (lots and lots of mess) is just more than I can handle. I am pretty direct about that, and we either find a different project, or do something else all together. Again, by being direct about what I am ok with, they are able to do a lot more in the long run.

Another note about my own sanity in creating with my kids is: as I’ve written about before, my kids do not tend to use things in the way I originally envisioned. If I’m suggesting a specific project, I need to know going into it that they will want to take it their own direction. That means either I remind myself that it is their project, not mine, and I am going to be fine with whatever the result is; or I tell them very specifically before hand what the parameters of that particular project are. (I do that with particularly messy projects, too.) It is far too easy for me to get caught up in them having the ‘right’ end product, which is really not the point at all.

There are lots of amazing blogs and website, where kids do really neat things. I love to look at them, both for ideas, and just for inspiration as I work to allow my own kids to develop their own creativity. But every time I see these blogs, I am thinking “wow, that looks incredible. But where is the mess? When does this get cleaned up? Where is the baby who tries to eat everything? What are the parameters that make this possible? How does this all really work, in day-to-day life?”

I suspect the answers are different for each family. Some families have less children, or more widely spaced ages than I do. Others may have great systems developed for cleaning, or areas devoted just to creating. However, since I must not be the only one thinking this (I hope…), over time I plan to share a little bit about how things work at our house.

We do “projects” on a pretty regular basis here. (Projects at our house are really open ended. We use the word for lots of different things, although I am mainly writing about art projects for this post.) For awhile it was pretty easy – the kids asked for something, I got it down, they made a picture and we put it back up. But in the last couple of months, they have become very creative in their use of materials, and need more materials to match their inner vision. In addition, Ian is suddenly able to do a lot more for himself – so he will get supplies down as he needs them. This works out great in theory, but I need to reorganize everything so it’s easier for them to use.

That being said, here’s what works for us right now.
Projects are done on the table in the kitchen, or sometimes outside. I really like this arrangement, because it’s central to what’s going on, and where the kids gravitate to naturally. Supplies are kept on the bookshelf right by the table, or on the shelves in the laundry room. I have the supplies divided into baskets by basic categories (play dough, drawing supplies, paints and brushes, things to glue). I can pull down whatever basket we need easily.

We purposely bought a table that we liked, but didn’t mind getting banged up a little. The floor is tile, so clean up is pretty easy. We have a tablecloth and aprons, for really messy stuff. We use washcloths as napkins, and I have a couple of damp ones handy when projects involve anything that might need cleaned up. Most of our supplies are easily washable, although I expect that will change as the kids grow older.

The kids clean or wipe up the big stuff, and I sweep or wipe down the table when they’re done. On occasion, they hop right into the bathtub.

I think a couple of things allow us to be a little more spontaneous with our projects.

The first is, I keep our schedule relatively clear. I am intentional about not filling our days up with too many commitments. I have purposely ordered our day with a schedule for chores that allows for lots of free time.

The second is, it’s a priority to me. Allowing my kids to explore and create is one of my main goals for our day. So I try to allow them to do projects whenever possible (this is a lot easier since our supplies are organized. I can pull a basket down with one hand, and we all know right where things go when they are put away.) In choosing priorities for our time, there are other things that we do not do on a regular basis.

Our newest treasure from Meemaw’s…

It came with one record; which miracoulously still works.

Ian is absolutely fascinated with it, and we have heard that one record many times. I think we’re going to need to make a trip to Goodwill soon, and expand our library.

Although this was Ray’s record player when he was little, I grew up with the exact same Fisher Price model. I also had the same record (Peter and the Wolf.) I feel a little like I’ve fallen into a time warp, watching my kids hover around this 20 year old record player.

I am also thrilled to report that the Billy Joel record – the one that I bought for 50 cents or so, when we were first married – the one that moved from Ohio to Texas, despite the fact that we had no record play – the one I’ve been refusing to donate – that record ALSO works in our new record player. Life is happy.